Author – Anna Smith Spark
Pages – 338 (hardback) 431 (ebook)
Genre – Grimdark Low Fantasy
Publishing Information – Luna Press Publishing, 4th April 2023.
Blurb
A Woman of the Sword is an epic fantasy seen through the eyes of an ordinary woman. Lidae is a daughter, a wife, a mother – and a great warrior born to fight. Her sword is hungry for killing, her right hand is red with blood.
War is very much a woman’s business. But war is not kind to women. And war is not kind to mothers and their sons.
Review
Anna Smith Spark returns triumphantly after the completion of her Empires of Dust trilogy with a new standalone novel set in the same world. And it’s bloody brilliant.
I should point out that there is absolutely no requirement to have read any of her previous work, even if there are some nods to the world and history. The timeline is a few decades on from the trilogy too.
Where Empires of Dust followed the movers and players of conflicts, here the story is on a much more personal level, one of the common footsoldier.
Lidae is the titular Woman of the Sword; a career soldier who we see at the beginning of this novel settled down on a farm with her two young boys, having to say goodbye to her just-departed husband (and former comrade in arms). When raiders attack her house and neighboring village, Lidae and her boys narrowly escape a tragic end, setting in motion the events of the rest of the book.
Our protagonist brings a fresh and unique perspective in a number of different ways. Being a common foot soldier, we are treated to a completely different viewpoint than we usually experience in a fantasy or historical fiction novel. Yes, there are plenty of stories which feature soldiers. These soldiers though usually belong to some elite force, or rise up the ranks to a command position or they hold some magical powers, skill level or royal bloodline which takes their story into the forefront of the conflict.
In A Woman of the Sword, Lidae and most of those that surround her are the regular grunts that get caught up in other men and women’s wars and are forced along for the ride, having no real control of their destinies. If your commander betrays someone, you by association become betrayer too. If your orders are to march into a seemingly impossible position, those are your orders; you don’t need to understand why – and a lot of those times it would be dangerous to know the real reason why. We are all too often at the head of the chess board and so rarely in the head of the pawns being sacrificed to set a trap for the bishops or knights on the next squares.
Smith Spark expertly captures this fog of war and the blindness of the common soldier following orders, fighting just to exist, or fighting because fighting is what they’re used to, unknowing, a feeling millions of men and women will have felt throughout real history. Although the strategies of the big chess players in this book are undoubtedly in motion, we are only able to see glimpses of it through the experiences of Lidae and the conversations of the soldiers around her. We see their tragic and gritty, fast burning lives and how nervous they are before battle, obsessively polishing their armour or sharpening swords, drinking or gambling, convinced they’d be dead tomorrow.
This ‘on the ground’ viewpoint gives the book a smaller scale and more focused feel than a lot of the epic grand fantasy we become accustomed to whilst still gripping us with high stakes. Making this such a personal story and giving us one POV character, especially a mother, in actual fact makes the stakes feel even higher.
Lidae as a person is what makes this book even more compelling. She’s a middle aged woman in a largely young man’s world, she’s a mother, a warrior, with the conflicted heart of both. She is flawed and broken yet her inner turmoil makes her all the more courageous, which we have the benefit of witnessing first hand through her thoughts and feelings. She struggles with her mental health, with having parenthood thrust upon her in an already difficult world – one she would undoubtedly not have chosen to face alone. Smith Spark conveys passionately how difficult it can be as a parent – never mind as a single mother of two on the road with war and death potentially around every corner. Lidae may be a mother, but she is also a person, a woman, with her own desires and this struggle between her compulsion to live a soldier’s life and to look after her sons plays a significant role in the story.
When her eldest son Ryn says hurtful things or later in the story when the two sons diverge and come into conflict it can really pull at your heartstrings and make you feel Lidae’s pain, whether you can relate to being a parent or not. If you can relate, Smith Spark really nails that parental guilt and feeling overwhelmed – and then feeling guilty that you’re feeling overwhelmed! She is really able to convey that feeling of children making hard times even harder, but also being the glue to hold you together to face those times.
In this book, the complexity of Lidae’s character is that glue, but there is so much more to love, too.
I really enjoyed the glimpses of some high fantasy elements – the heat of dragon fire and the visions of it in the distance. Mages battling. Dark, demonic riders of old bone and metal. What I like is none of these elements are really explained and we only have the same insight as we would have if we were there as a footsoldier. The message is not to understand but to survive, and this adds to the immersion massively.
What do I love even more?
Anna Smith Spark has quite a distinctive writing style and admittedly it isn’t always to everyone’s taste, but it most certainly is to mine. Peter McLean calls Anna’s writing “Blood-drenched heavy metal Homeric poetry” and I’m very inclined to agree. I’ve spoken before about it having a very visceral immediacy in action packed moments. I have an overactive mind which turns up to 11 during stress or anxiety. When Anna writes these scenes, it really mirrors the way my mind works and makes the feelings of the characters involved feel so much more authentic. I love it so much. You have to sort of tune in to the writing style and then once you do, you can actually read much faster than a more conventional fantasy writing style because everything then flows so brilliantly.
There is a lovely poetry to her writing, with beautiful imagery that jumps out from the page. Reading Anna Smith Spark’s work is honestly a wonderful reading experience. It’s not just reading a novel, it feels unique and fulfilling and like you’ve been lucky enough to be a part of something. While you’re reading her work, it symbiotically becomes a part of you, forcing you to feel the raw emotions, gorgeous descriptions and smell the stenches of battle. Smith Spark is unapologetic and honest in her depiction of war. And she puts this same passion into all of her writing. In A Woman of the Sword, every word feels carefully selected, every sentence crafted into a thing of beauty.
I felt emotional at numerous points of the story, and after finishing it, sat speechless. Most great books stay with you afterwards, and some parts stay with you for years. Outlooks on life, or strong feelings they gave you. This is one of those books.
If you’re ready not just to read, but to experience, if you’re ready for a book to burn itself into your being, to feel and to marvel at an extraordinary writer, read A Woman of the Sword. And then go and read everything else Anna Smith Spark has written.
*I just want to say thanks so much to Anna for sending me a copy of this book. It in no way has impacted my review – those are from the heart after reading such a brilliant story. This hardback is a thing of beauty – the glossy cover, the amazingly powerful and emotive artwork from Stas Borodin. It’s been such a pleasure.
About the Author
Anna Smith-Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grim dark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website http://www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna’s favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player.
She can often by spotted at SFF conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
You can buy A Woman of the Sword from Luna Press here or from your chosen book retailer.
Spells and Spaceships 